My Top Twenty of 2000-2008

[Pop Trash]

This is heavy on the earlier years of this decade, but that's mostly because enough time has gone by to really consider these films.

1. Donnie Darko
2. Adaptation.
3. You Can Count On Me
4. Ghost World
5. About Schmidt

6. Memento
7. Requiem for a Dream
8. Capturing the Friedmans
9. A.I.
10. Talk to Her

11. George Washington
12. Lost in Translation
13. Together/Lilja 4-Ever (tie-both by Moodysson)
14. In the Bedroom
15. High Fidelity

16. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
17. Bowling for Columbine
18. Before Sunset
19. The Squid and the Whale
20. Brokeback Mountain

1-15 I feel pretty confident about. 16-20 might change.

Feel free to submit your own list...

[Winston*]

That's a top 21.

[MacGuffin]

That's a pretty boring and conventional list!

[Ezee E]

Capturing the Friedmans? Really?

[transmogrifier]

No ST?

[Qrazy]

Meh.

[Spinal]

Comments are always nice. Why Donnie Darko #1? Why share a spot with the Moodysson films when they are extremely different? What do you look for in a film and how do these choices reflect your personality?

[Ezee E]

Comments are always nice. Why Donnie Darko #1? Why share a spot with the Moodysson films when they are extremely different? What do you look for in a film and how do these choices reflect your personality?

Choices are suppose to reflect personality?

[Sycophant]

Choices are suppose to reflect personality?

No, they aren't supposed to. But they always manage to somehow. Goddamn them.

[Spinal]

Choices are suppose to reflect personality?

I usually find trends when I make these lists that reflect something I value.

[Ezee E]

I usually find trends when I make these lists that reflect something I value.

I guess it's too soon for 2008, but I got The Fall, Cloverfield, Iron Man, and My Blueberry Nights.

I guess it is true that I'm insane.

I know where you're going at with this, but I've never really put too much thought into it.

[Pop Trash]

Capturing the Friedmans? Really?

Yup. It's one of the most fascinating docs I've ever seen. I like documentaries about strange, underrepresented true crimes (also Paradise Lost and Brother's Keeper fall into this area)

[Pop Trash]

No ST?

I figured one Richard Kelly film is enough, plus not enough time has lapsed to properly judge Southland Tales. Perhaps I'll hate it in a few years, but I doubt it.

[Pop Trash]

Comments are always nice. Why Donnie Darko #1? Why share a spot with the Moodysson films when they are extremely different? What do you look for in a film and how do these choices reflect your personality?

Donnie Darko I saw pre-hype and was one of those people that was just like 'holy shit, what's going on in this movie?' It had similarities to a screenplay I was writing but went way beyond in its imagination then anything I could ever come up with. I am also a big fan of the 'teen rebel' genre which effectively began with Rebel Without a Cause and continued on in other decades with films like Harold and Maude, Over the Edge, River's Edge, Heathers, etc. It used the template of teen rebels but went beyond it into sci-fi, surrealism, possible schizophrenia (if you read it that way) family drama, comedy, post 9/11 doomsday paranoia, BMX bikes, and last but not least, the 80s.

As for Moodysson, no reason other than I love both films equally and seem to be the flip side of Moodysson's humanist coin. One warm and funny, the other deeply sad and tragic but both have a deeply felt empathy towards the human condition.

[Spinal]

One more question. Have you actually seen the two parts of Kill Bill edited together, or are you ranking the two films as one entry?

[Pop Trash]

One more question. Have you actually seen the two parts of Kill Bill edited together, or are you ranking the two films as one entry?

One entry. I just think 'The Whole Bloody Affair' has a nice ring to it. Why?

[Spinal]

One entry. I just think 'The Whole Bloody Affair' has a nice ring to it. Why?

Cause I keep hearing about it despite the fact that it doesn't seem to exist. I think it could be great, but I really doubt that Tarantino is willing to cut enough to make it the film that I personally would be satisfied with. And it would probably still have that dopey Superman monologue, plus Darryl Hannah's character reading from her Wikipedia research.

[baby doll]

Since the decade isn't over, I'd probably start by limiting myself to eight titles. It won't be many a month if not years until I see some of the films that just premiered at Berlin, Rotterdam and Cannes with Venice, Toronto and, more to the point, Busan still months away. And for that very reason, my list as well would be heavily slanted towards the earlier part of the decade. I'd also have to limit myself to films I've seen at least three times.

Alphebetically speaking:

demonlover (Olivier Assayas, 2002)
Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)
Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma, 2002)
Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001)
La Pianiste (Michael Haneke, 2001)
Platform (Jia Zhang-ke, 2000)
Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2000)

[Grouchy]

Cause I keep hearing about it despite the fact that it doesn't seem to exist. I think it could be great, but I really doubt that Tarantino is willing to cut enough to make it the film that I personally would be satisfied with. And it would probably still have that dopey Superman monologue, plus Darryl Hannah's character reading from her Wikipedia research.

This weirds me out too. I always heard the Bloody Affair cut had been made and shown, yet why it's never been made available on DVD? It doesn't even have its own IMDb entry, for fuck's sake.

I've done this "Films of the '00s" list before, but can't find it. Well, huh...

1. Mulholland Dr.
2. Oldboy
3. In the Mood for Love
4. Children of Men
5. Caché
6. The Incredibles
7. I'm Not There
8. Femme Fatale
9. The Triplets of Belleville
10. The Man Who Wasn't There

[Qrazy]

Hmmm Femme Fatale's that good eh... I'm fairly mixed on De Palma but I guess I"ll give it a look.

[Derek]

Hmmm Femme Fatale's that good eh... I'm fairly mixed on De Palma but I guess I"ll give it a look.

It wouldn't make my top 10 or 20 of the decade, but it is one of his best films.

[Pop Trash]

Hmmm Femme Fatale's that good eh... I'm fairly mixed on De Palma but I guess I"ll give it a look.

It's entertaining and fairly rediculous but then again...it's a DePalma movie.

[origami_mustache]

still haven't seen a film from Moodysson

[berlin wallflower]

Could change at any moment, but for now:

1. Werckmeister Harmonies
2. In Praise of Love
3. All or Nothing
4. The New World
5. Dancer In the Dark
6. The Company
7. All the Real Girls
8. Russian Ark
9. 3-Iron
10. Open Hearts
11. Yi Yi
12. Songs from the Second Floor
13. Elephant
14. Saraband
15. In the Mood for Love

I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I have such a bad memory. It's pathetic. Lists don't really mean that much to me. They're fun to do, but that's about it. It just makes me realize that there's a ton of films from this decade that I haven't seen.

[Pop Trash]

That's a pretty boring and conventional list!

Thanks, I try.